Volume 10, Issue 1

Journals

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This issue of the Journal features an article, Early Use of Psychotherapy in Prevention of Preterm Labor: The Application of Hypnosis and Ideomotor Techniques with Women Carrying Twin Pregnancies, by David B. Cheek, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. It is also a pleasure to dedicate this issue of the Journal to David who is renowned as obstetrician, gynecologist, pioneer in clinical hypnosis and wonderful friend. The article published in this issue is his fiftieth in fifty years and, to quote APPPAH President David Chamberlain, "typically, {the content} offers a hopeful approach to a major problem for mothers and babies today-premature birth." Commenting on the article himself, David Cheek wrote to me that, "My colleagues will never believe what I have been finding during the past ten years: that the fetus initiates labor, whether at term or prematurely. If the mother can keep reassuring telepathic interchange going, her babies will not initiate labor before they are mature." David Cheek is completing his tenure as an APPPAH Board member this fall but all who know and love him realize that his dedication to mothers and babies is legendary and that his influence and service entirely transcend the formalities of official duties.

Aletha Solter, Ph.D., the author of two books, The Aware Baby and Helping Young Children Flourish, in an article entitled Why Do Babies Cry! examines "the baffling phenomenon of extensive crying in infants for unknown reasons." David Chamberlain shares with us some of his experiences at the International Society for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine, while Robbie E. Davis-Floyd reviews a video entitled Gentle Birth Choices.

Finally the crisis surrounding the issues of childhood are being given more extensive coverage in internationally distributed magazines. The July 1995 issue of Life features a cover story on How Can We Keep Our Children Safe?: The Danger Years. The article examines issues ranging from sexual abuse and neglect to violence, drugs and alienation (Allen, 1995). Then on a recent trip to Morocco I was given a copy of the magazine L'Evänement. An essay entitled Les Enfants de la Rue: Tragique Destin (Children of the Streets: Tragic Destiny) insists that it is past time to recognize the disastrous influence of the streets on children forced to subsist in such an environment; challenges us to awareness of the amplitude and gravity of the problem and urges concrete action (M'Jid, 1995). I would also like to add that the Moroccans, in addition to recognizing and attempting to deal with the tragic problem of abandoned children in their country, could offer an example to the world in the devotion and loving kindness that many offer not only to their extended families but to visitors like me who are welcomed with warm-hearted hospitality. Morocco is linked to the United States by a treaty signed in 1787 by George Washington, making the country our most long-lasting friend. Through the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of lburism of Morocco, I am privileged to be included in a joint project during the 1996 Olympics (developed by a wise and wonderful friend named Zahid Mansouri) between the city of Atlanta and the Government of Morocco which has been created to encourage a positive cultural, educational and economic interchange between Moroccans and Americans. With every recognition in the media of issues involving pregnant mothers, infants and children and with every project which encourages world-mindedness, I am encouraged that as humans we are making the evolutionary leap toward wholeness that is crucial to our survival.